


we talked about nothing, which was more than i wanted you to know

by judypoovey



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, mildly spoiler-y, post-vol 2, very silly.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 14:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10856328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judypoovey/pseuds/judypoovey
Summary: Kraglin makes a friend. It's weird (to everyone else).





	we talked about nothing, which was more than i wanted you to know

**Author's Note:**

> When Kraglin had that scene with Nebula, my weird-ass brain was like "Aw, that's nice!" so I wrote a fic about it. Feel free to hang out with me on tumblr at http://peterudonta.tumblr.com (and everyone draw Nebula-Kraglin friendship fanart)

“Cap’n, we’re gettin’ a distress call,” Kraglin said, turning to look over where Peter was currently holding down Groot while Gamora attempted to trim his leaves, which had gotten unruly during his most recent growth spurt. He was trying to claw them to escape, but failing. It vaguely reminded Kraglin of cutting nine-year-old Peter’s hair, though he was more prone to bite.

“Where from?” he asked. They got distress calls from clients from time to time, and sometimes from passing Ravager ships who were trying to signal their own mother ships. This one was not either.

He cringed at the sight of it. “It’s Nebula.”

\--

They found Nebula on some far-flung moon among the smoldering wreckage of her ship. It had been two and a half weeks since the events on Ego’s planet, since Nebula had left on her mission to kill Thanos. She was limping when they helped her onto the ship. Clearly, she had not been successful.

Kraglin was setting the course back to Xandar, where the Guardians were going on a supply run and getting a mission from some cop they knew, when the hatch opened behind him.

All he saw was blue out of the corner of his eye and he involuntarily tensed up before he remembered Nebula. No ghosts, just sad robotic girls. “I need you to help fix my arm,” she said.

“Rocket can do that better than me.”

“I don’t _want_ the fox to do it,” she said, her voice more insistent.

Kraglin furrowed his brows. Weird, but okay. He knew Rocket got under people’s skin. “Be in autopilot in five. Toolkit in that drawer,” he said, pointing to his left. She fetched the tools, still heavily limping. When the ship was set to its course, he walked over and sat down in front of Nebula where she had settled on the floor.

She opened the console of her arm. “I think it needs to be resoldered.”

“And you got a few bits loose here,” he pointed out.

“I just need you to hold it down while I do it,” she said. “This new hand twitches when I try, I can’t fix it myself.” Her voice was scratchy from screaming, he assumed. Or maybe that was just how she sounded. He didn’t really know. So he just nodded.

They worked in silence.

“You’re not going to ask what happened?” she asked. She hissed at the last screw turn, but her body language didn’t betray any pain.

“Reckoned you’d tell me if you wanted to,” he said. “That’s not as tight as it needs to be,” he added. “Probably why your hand is twitchin’.” He grabbed up the screw and without even checking for permission, turned it the half-turn it needed to be properly tightened.

“I didn’t even make it to Thanos,” she said after a growl of discomfort.

“Good thing you’re okay,” he said, dropping her hand as Pete walked into the navigation area, giving them a completely baffled look where they sat on the floor with the toolbox between them. “We’re en route to Xandar, cap’n.”

“Just coming up to see if you need anything when we go for supplies,” he said, his voice awkward.

“Can’t think of nothin’,” Kraglin said. Peter quickly excused himself, looking perturbed.

\--

“Why are you not going to Xandar with them?” Nebula asked him when the rest of the team left and he stayed behind, working on some small ship repairs (but also mostly planning to nap). “Not part of the team?” Was she goading him?

Kraglin couldn’t honestly say if he was really part of the team or not. “Same reason you can’t,” he said. “Got two dozen bounties on my head all over the Empire.”

Nebula seemed to be considering this, as if she was surprised that he was a wanted man. Had she forgotten he was a Ravager? “I broke into Gamora’s room and got her snack stash,” she said, throwing him a bag. She kicked up her feet and sank into the chair, and he joined her, plans of napping mostly forgotten.

“I got you your cut of the bounties,” he said. “Like you asked for.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How?”

“Ravager tradition. Call in all the _wanted dead_ bounties and see who pays up.” His face was grim as he unzipped the pocket at his chest and pulled out a credit stick. “Lots of dead Ravagers this time.” He tossed it to her and she caught it easily in her good hand. He hadn’t enjoyed making those calls (except the ones about Taserface and his lot. After Yondu and himself, Taserface had the most bounties out for him, mostly for being unpleasant, so he got a morbid glee out of reminding people was dead), and most them handed over the agreed-on bounties (with some _encouragement_ ). “Split up seven ways, so it’s more than ten percent.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t gonna thank him, and he didn’t expect or want her to. He was just keeping up his end of the deal.

“Should be able to get you a new ship.”

“Or a nice necklace?” she said, her voice disdainful.

He shrugged.

\--

On Xandar, Peter was contemplating what he had seen before. “Why would she go to Kraglin?”

Mantis perked up. “Maybe she still feels like she doesn’t belong, and so does he. I felt like that too at first even though you are my friends now,” she suggested.

Peter considered that. “It’s possible.”

“I agree with Mantis,” Gamora said. “She’s probably just uncomfortable. Nothing to do about it unless she wants to do something about it.”

“I bet he just wants another blue friend,” Drax said sagely. “He misses Yondu.”

“That’s _definitely_ not it,” Peter said, rubbing his forehead. They were eating lunch in Xandar after a day of shopping. This was ridiculous.

“Clearly, they’re banging,” Rocket said (but not before covering Groot’s ears).

He couldn’t suppress his imagination or his gag. “Dude! Don’t say shit like that,” he yelped. The last thing he needed on his mind was the image of his crush’s younger sister banging his brother/dad/bully (he and Kraglin had always had a _complicated_ relationship, not worth going into today). “That is _not_ what it is. It’s more likely to be Drax’s thing.”

Drax laughed.

“Well what do _you_ think it is, Mr. Smart Guy?” Rocket asked, a little snide.

“ _I_ think it’s just because Kraglin doesn’t talk much. So he’s not gonna annoy her like we would.” He had always known when to keep his mouth shut. Maybe Nebula appreciated that.

\--

When they returned to the ship, both Nebula and Kraglin were asleep, reclining in chairs and covered in stolen snacks. Gamora made a noise of protest. “I had those hidden!”

“Jackasses,” Peter grumbled to himself, amused.

\--

Nebula left when they made port on a non-Empire planet a day later. She had spent her time looming around, occasionally talking to Gamora or Kraglin but mostly making calls in order to get herself a ship once they got on-world.

Weirdly, when she left Kraglin kinda missed her scowling presence.

\--

She came back a month later, in better shape than the time before. She found them on Knowhere when they stopped in to collect on a bounty for a particularly nasty dude.

“Welcome back,” he said when he saw her. He had spent the evening gambling while the rest of the Guardians went bounty hunting. It’s not that he wasn’t interested being part of the team, it was just that he…well…

Just felt better slipping into old habits, he guessed. So he had gotten back to the ship before anyone else, finding her waiting inside. He didn’t ask how she’d gotten in. He didn’t care.

“Not out guarding the galaxy?”

“Someone’s gotta stay with the ship.”

“You weren’t _with_ the ship,” she pointed out.

“Well, don’t tell the cap’n that.” He started setting up their flight path, and he was a little buzzed so it took his focus away from the assassin two feet to his left. Kraglin didn’t scare easy, and he doubted she had any ill-intent. It looked like she just needed a place to crash.

“Where’s the next stop?”

“Some Nova outpost, then Contraxia,” he said, too drunk to hide his grimace at the thought of returning without his crew.  “’Bout a week’s flight all around. Sure you wanna tag along? If you’re just restocking to go back after Thanos you can do it here.”

Nebula looked out the porthole, but he saw her glaring at his reflection. “Does Quill know what you did? With the other Ravagers?”

“I didn’t do nothin’,” he said, his voice getting hot. He hadn’t, in fact, spoken with Pete about the mutiny. He wasn’t sure Rocket had either. Neither of them were keen to relive it, and Pete deserved to be spared the details, for now at least. All he knew was that all the Ravagers, save Kraglin and himself, were dead. He was sure that the boy was smart enough to fill in the details himself.

“Isn’t that the point? You didn’t do anything to help.”

“You think he knows about what _you_ did?” he shot back. She was just riling him up, but it was working. Two months of stewing quietly, trying to master a stupid arrow, and minding his damn business had not, like he’d hoped, put his grief behind him. He didn’t want to talk about it.

“I don’t _care_ ,” she lied.

“You’d care if it meant you didn’t have a place to stay. What’d you bring it up for then, if you don’t?” he snapped. It took a lot to make him lose his cool, but this was barreling into that territory very quickly.

“Neither of us belong here, do we? We’re the bad guys,” she said, her voice lowering a little. She wasn’t mocking him anymore, she sounded a little anxious, even.

Kraglin considered this for a moment. “Are you…” He didn’t know how to say it proper (this is why he kept his damn mouth shut). “You trying to get a rise outta me because you told me all that shit about Thanos and your sister?”

She was suspiciously silent. If this was Nebula’s version of vulnerability, it was working. He felt kinda shitty.

“I don’t have a…horrifyin’ tragic past to share with you. But I’m not gonna tell anyone what you told me, either.”

“Of course not, if you did, I’d kill you,” she lied. Lying was definitely not in her skill set at all.

“I can even the playin’ field though,” he said, turning around to face her. “If it’ll make you feel better.”

She didn’t respond, but he got the sense that he was gonna have to keep talking.

“I was born the youngest of six. Poor family on Xandar. Which meant you stole and gambled to get shit or you starved.” He took a deep breath and tried to remember words. “Got arrested a few times. Parents kicked me out at fourteen and by fifteen I was a Ravager under Yondu.”

Nebula was considering his words, eyes narrowed slightly.

“Got made first mate at seventeen.”

“Did you kill the old first mate?” she asked. “Mutiny, like before?”

Kraglin let out a heavy sigh. “No. He left…the exile. The kids. He wanted no part of it.” He didn’t like remembering. It was…maybe he hadn’t regretted it the way Yondu had, because he hadn’t been tricked by the old jackass. He had just listened to his captain. It still hurt though, looking at Peter and knowing there were fucktons like him that never had a _chance_. “I just got promoted because I kept my mouth shut.”

“You are good at that,” she said.

“Are you tryin’ to be…nice?” he asked.

She just rolled her eyes and huffed. That must have been a yes.

\--

Kraglin didn’t want to get off the ship at Contraxia, but he and Peter were the only proper Ravagers on the ship, which meant they were the only ones that would get shit done.

“You guys never let me go to Contraxia,” he said to Kraglin when they got ready to leave the ship. Nebula was coming with them because he was going to take her somewhere to find more supplies for her travels.

“Too young.”

“I was _thirty_ last time I asked.”

“ _Still_ too young.” Kraglin shook his head, Nebula rolled her eyes, and they walked away from the red-light district and towards the slightly more reputable areas, where Ravagers were loudly mingling, haggling over stolen goods and comparing their ship specs.

Most of them silenced at the sight of the three of them, however no one came up to them.

“So…are you two like…friends now?” Peter asked, trying to break the silence. Trying to drown out the whispers of ‘mutiny’, ‘Yondu’s boy’, ‘all dead now’. Pete had always had a knack for filling silence.

“What?” Nebula snapped.

“You guys hang out whenever you’re on the ship. Like…”

Kraglin knew Peter’s tells, and knew he was trying to assess something much weirder and grosser than whether they were friends or not. Wrinkling his nose, he patted Quill on the shoulder. “Yeah, friends. _Just_ friends.”

“Is he implying we had _relations_?” she asked, poking him on the shoulder.

“ _Ouch_ , and yes.” That was – well. Not that Nebula wasn’t…fine to look at. But she really wasn’t his type at all. Weird. He wasn’t actually sure he would call her his friend, either.

“You are _disgusting_ , Quill. Now I understand why my sister rebukes your advances,” she said, her voice turning haughty.

“Hey, that’s really mean!” he said as Kraglin started laughing. “And it’s not funny!”


End file.
